Hierarchy of Content Words: Descriptive Words
Nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs are all content words, and therefore, are likely to receive added stress in spoken English. However, not all content words are equally likely to be stressed. Descriptive words (adjectives and adverbs) are less important than nouns and main verbs in a neutral stress pattern.
In the following example
| The |
morning |
was |
warmer |
than |
usual. |
|
| • |
• • |
• |
• • |
• |
• • • |
|
| determiner |
noun |
aux verb |
adjective |
preposition |
adjective |
|
we can see that the adjectives are content words, and are stressed when they are not next to another content word, especially a noun. However, if the descriptive word is used in a phrase with a noun or verb, the descriptive word may be given less stress in order to let the nouns and verbs stand out.
In the following example
the stressed words are easy to predict because there are no adjacent stressed syllables. However, we might want to add descriptive words to the sentence.
Listen to the following example.
We can add the adjectives new and big, and not change the stressed words of the sentence. This is happens naturally because, according to the Rhythm Rule, speakers try to keep stressed syllables occurring in beat. To make that easier, speakers are less likely to stress two adjacent syllables. New and big are both single-syllable descriptive words, so it is more likely that the nouns they are describing will be stressed.
What happens if the descriptive words have more than one syllable?
| She |
never |
asked |
her |
obnoxious |
boss |
for a |
humongous |
raise. |
|
| • |
• • |
• |
• |
• • • |
• |
• • |
• • • |
• |
That sentence allows us to stress the descriptive words because they contain multiple syllables. In fact, if the adjectives weren't stressed, we'd have too many syllables between the stressed words to sound fluid and at ease.
Review lessons
Sentence stress guidelines
Introduction to sentence stress
The Rhythm Rule
Nouns and main verbs